The forest garden now has an abundance of blooms, a few that we planted, but mostly they are “incomers “ who have chosen to join us. Most of the Poppies have seeded themselves from last year’s community garden crop, but the main party goers are the 2 types of Goosefoot which have moved in and filled up the empty spaces very nicely. You can read all about what they are and how they got here in Jan’s recent forest garden plant profile.
The goosefoots are just an example of the many very useful plants which are commonly pulled out as “weeds”. Many common plants are highly nutritious, much more so than the cultivated types. Not only that, they provide shelter and food for wildlife and protect and enhance the soil from drying and also from loss of structure from snow and rain. Many plants like the dandelion will accumulate nutrients from deep in the soil, making them available when the leaves rot on top of the soil in winter. In the Forest garden we leave many common “weeds” to do their thing and if we do pull out, a “chop and drop” system is used whereby the leaves are left to cover bare soil. Other less welcome visitors have been the Teasel which also self seeded from the community garden. A magnificent plant excellent for bees but unfortunately too big and spikey to keep them all in a small forest garden.
If you would like to find out more about Frorest Gardens please do join our guided tours during Tayport Climate Festival, 24-26th September. Tours run at 10:30am, 11:30am, and 12:30pm on Friday and Saturday, and you can drop in anytime 12-3pm on Sunday during our Garden Creative Climate event too!
